The Tampa Bay Lightning, with a chance to close out their opponent in the Eastern Conference Final, lose Game 6 on home ice.
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In the East, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves back in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2013 and are now headed to a seventh game on Thursday night against the Steven Stamkos/Ben Bishop-less Tampa Bay Lightning.
Pittsburgh has lost its past three Game 7s, all at Consol Energy Center.
The Sharks lead the series 3-2 and can earn their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals.
Let’s start with the big man, Sidney Crosby.
That gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead and they needed all of that advantage to survive a heavy surge from the Lightning and escape with a victory.
Momentum in the Penguins’ favour on home ice in the do-or-die game on Thursday after a 5-2 triumph in Game 6?
But the bottom line is that the Lightning, facing 21-year-old rookie goaltender Matt Murray in his first National Hockey League elimination game, was outshot 26-11 (47-29 in attempts) the first two periods. The thing is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who promised this game would go back to their city, also said the right things.
“It’s not something you need to watch over and over again, but I think that, yeah, it’s fun”, Crosby admitted.
“I definitely think that our start and our compete and our intensity is going to be key”, Stralman said.
Able to hold on in the final moments, the Penguins never veered from the gameplan put together by head coach Mike Sullivan. He is now part of a group that only includes six players to have won at least seven consecutive Game 7s (Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik, Red Kelly, Mike Richards and Justin Williams are the others). What if Murray – who turned 22 on Wednesday – actually benefited from the night off? Against the Islanders in the second round, the Lightning twice erased a third-period deficit and rallied to win in overtime. Sullivan was very emphatic on Wednesday that the move wasn’t created to punish someone for poor play.
“You give yourself the best chance of winning by keeping it simple and not putting too much emphasis on kind of the story line around it”, Crosby said. “Matt played a lot of hockey”.
Sullivan’s influence was most noticeable in the play of his stars. This is a battle.
You get the feeling the Penguins wouldn’t have it any other way.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Murray joined Ken Dryden (Montreal, 1971) and Mike Vernon (Calgary, 1986) as the only goaltenders in the post-expansion era to reach double-digits in playoff victories before doing so in the regular season.
Regardless of the motivation, there was a high degree of risk involved with the decision.
The Penguins, who were facing elimination for the first time in the 2016 postseason after back-to-back losses, got goals from five different players in game six and 30 saves from rookie goalie Matt Murray.
As returns from exile go, few will play out much better than the one Murray made against the Lightning in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference at Amalie Arena on Tuesday night.
Pittsburgh absolutely dominated Tampa Bay in the first period, firing 14 shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy whilst only allowing four against Matthew Murray. After all, Fleury has been the Penguins’ starter until a late season concussion sidelined him.
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Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Phil Kessel, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust and Nick Bonino also scored, sending the series to a decider in Pittsburgh on Sunday. “It helped me a lot, the change of scenery and a new environment, maybe not being in Canada, less pressure”, Schultz said. “It’s disappointing to sit out for a couple of games. I think that’s gotten us this far”.
